


The Boy and the Rabbit

by Daphnean



Series: My EXO Challenge [15]
Category: EXO (Band)
Genre: Alternate Universe - College/University, Blood, M/M, Minor Violence, Romance, Urban Fantasy
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-11-06
Updated: 2016-11-06
Packaged: 2018-08-29 11:24:01
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,958
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/8487475
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Daphnean/pseuds/Daphnean
Summary: Kyungsoo becomes known as The Woodland Prince on campus and discovers something truly magical before he graduates.





	

**Author's Note:**

> While this isn't a typical "Fairy Tale" as my prompt implies, I don't really care that it diverges so much. To me, it has many fairy tale qualities while being a little something of its own. I will warn that someone does get stabbed, although I don't go into graphic detail.

Finally kicked out of the library by campus security as they locked up the building, Kyungsoo sleepily trudged towards his dorms across campus. His first senior project was nearly complete just a month before finals started to bare teeth and claws into his schedule, and while it was a relief to be a step closer to that much needed winter break, he had already forgotten what sleep felt like.

November crept all through the city, leaves clustered around lampposts and trees. At this time of morning, where it still looked like night, Kyungsoo found their campus was the most beautiful. The several blocks that made up the university had sprawls of grass and trees for students to study in when the weather permitted and housed rabbits and squirrels all year round. During the day, most of the animals remained hidden in the landscaping, but on his now routine morning walks he’d spot them, black eyes catching the light along the sidewalk as they froze in place. With a soft, low tone he’d try and speak to them, only for them to dart off in response.

He was making his way around the corner of Kingston building when he was grabbed from behind, tugged into the tall bushes with a hand over his mouth and a knife to his throat. His senses overloaded with panic and the smell of alcohol as he struggled, his assailant taller and broader.

“Better hope you have a laptop or a credit card, shorty.” A new person in front of him had their face covered with what looked like a red scarf, also holding a short knife, but he could barely make out their features in the dim light.

Kyungsoo knew better, knew that surrendering what he had was a far better option than trying anything in retaliation, but before logic could catch up with the rest of him, he’d bitten down hard on the hand in his mouth. In shock the man who grabbed him pulled back, slicing into his collarbone with the knife. “Fucking shit!”

Before he could do something against the man still in his way, he was shoved against the wall, head slamming back into the stone and not a moment later, while the world began to fade, he saw a glint of light before the covered man pushed the knife into him. He expected pain, hot and searing, but he felt nothing but the wild beating of his pulse, consciousness slipping from him like strands of hair through his fingers.

There was shuffling, muffled by the echoing buzz of his head, and he collapsed to the ground, into the waiting darkness.

\--

The first time he woke, he felt like he was on a ship, like the boat his grandfather had owned when he was a boy. A young woman’s voice was repeatedly rocking with his movements. “Oh my God, oh my God, oh my-”

“Yerim, don’t look, God.” another voice to his right spoke.

When he tried to open his eyes, he saw the streaking pinks of morning sunlight in the blue sky and figures doused in silhouette. Pain was choking him, throbbing at the base of his skull and a vice along his abdomen. Only a moment longer and he was out again.

\--

He woke two times after, but neither one he remembered. The fourth time he woke to his mother’s hand on his, stroking around the IV. Nausea stirred in his stomach and he felt muggy, thoughts and body trapped in mud as he opened his eyes to see her small, worn hands. When he groaned and tried to move, she sobbed so loudly it woke his father from where he had been sleeping on the couch on the other side of the room.

Information was being thrown at him from doctors, nurses, and his family all at once. He felt like a child playing dodge ball and he was the only one left on his team, taking ball after ball to the face. Tongue thick and foreign in his mouth, he tried to reply as best as he could, head still too sore for him to respond with nods.

Kyungsoo had felt like only minutes had passed before the police arrived to get his statement, allowing his mother to give him intermittent drinks of ice water between questions. With each passing moment of coherency, all he wanted was to sleep. More doctors came, more doctors left, and with another dose of medication and talk of recovery, he was finally granted sleep.

\--

It was dark outside, he could tell from the window, when he woke once more. His mother and father were asleep on the couch near the TV, which was playing some late night infomercial droning on about knives that could cut through shoe leather. Some part of him thought that was an inappropriate coincidence, after all what had happened to him. Senses still dulled, it took him a moment to realize his brother was beside him. The older man slid a hand into his hair and Kyungsoo closed his eyes at the touch, leaning back into the pillows.

“Seungsoo.” His voice was so rough, uneven from disuse. “What…happened to me?”

He wasn’t used to his brother’s voice sounding so thick. “You almost got mugged and got yourself stabbed instead.”

“Oh.” Kyungsoo licked his chapped lips. “I didn’t even feel it.”

Somehow, his brother managed to chuckle, but the sound was a little too wet. “Could have been the concussion or the adrenaline, I don’t know. We could ask Dr. Zhang when he comes back in the morning.”

Opening his eyes again, he saw his brother’s expression. Seungsoo had more of their father’s face, of the two of them, but they both had their mother’s nose. Kyungsoo felt a twinge of guilt, a new wound, in his chest at seeing his brother so emotional. Seungsoo, like himself, usually kept such things private.

“Apparently getting stabbed is better? Bullets will tear through intestines, but knives often slide between bowel segments. Someone found you like…maybe an hour after it all happened. Scared some poor jogger to death. Currently, you’re hopped up on pain pulls, antibiotics, and we’re lucky you didn’t fall into sepsis.” He continued to run his fingers through Kyungsoo’s hair. “Or die from blood loss.”

Kyungsoo attempted to reach over to a cup near the bedside, but Seungsoo took it instead, bringing the straw to his lips for him.

“Thank you.” He took a long, slow drink.

Seungsoo took the Styrofoam cup in both hands, holding it in his lap now. “When we got that call from the hospital and the university…we flew in immediately. Your friends, a lot of random students and professors too, sent you flowers and balloons.”

It was surprising he hadn’t noticed them before. The bedside table near the right of his bed was covered in floral arrangements and balloon bouquets. There was a large, plush giraffe that he was almost certain Chanyeol or Baekhyun had bought him. His emotions seemed so close to surface now and he felt tears beading near the corners of his eyes.

“They caught the guys, by the way.” Seungsoo brought his attention back to him, and Kyungsoo silently thanked him for the distraction. “Apparently one was freaking out about the attack and the two of them got into a fight in a parking lot about a block from where they’d tried to rob you. They’d been scoping the campus for quick cash or something and saw you walking.”

Kyungsoo’s brows furrowed. “What college student actually has any money?”

That startled a more genuine laugh from his brother, who shook his head. “You nearly die from a damned stab wound and you make jokes.”

“I could actually make several.” Kyungsoo shifted, hissing a bit as he used the muscles near what must be his abdominal wound. "like something about a fate worse than death if they’d managed to take off with my laptop because my senior project was on it. I’d make even more if I weren’t so tired.”

Seungsoo smoothed his hair again. “Hey, its fine. You just focus on resting. Want to hear the cool part though?”

“There’s a cool part to my getting stabbed story besides me…you know, getting stabbed and living?” Kyungsoo raised a brow, even as he closed his eyes again.

This time the hand in his hair ruffled it gently, obviously careful of his injuries. “Yeah. You’ve got a badass nickname now: The Woodland Prince.”

A moment of silence and Kyungsoo had to open his eyes again. “Are you going to explain this, or…?”

“When they found you, you were surrounded by rabbits; five of them, all huddled around your body like they were trying to keep you warm. You’d even bled on one and it didn’t budge, not until the paramedics came.” Seungsoo smiled, and Kyungsoo could see the dark circles under his eyes. “So you’re apparently some sort of Disney prince.”

That hadn’t been what he was expecting, what he remembered of the skittish brown rabbits that he’d tried to coax into friendship on his morning walks, but somehow the knowledge made him smile. Sleep met him easier, this time.

\--

Kyungsoo, who had been a relative nobody on campus, upon his return, couldn’t escape attention. While Chanyeol or Baekhyun might have enjoyed the constant students approaching them with encouragement or wanting to buy them lunch, Kyungsoo just wanted to get back into his daily routine again. Privacy, his old friend, became a long-distance relationship. Campus security had gotten tighter and his best friends never gave him a moment to himself. He nearly snapped twice at Baekhyun for it, but each time, he bit his tongue. A week after he’d been discharged from the hospital, he’d overheard his roommate tearfully talking to Chanyeol in their living room, blaming himself for heading home early the night Kyungsoo had been attacked.

Luckily, the looming finals and winter break took hold of the student body, and Kyungsoo finally sank back into obscurity. One night just a week before finals, Kyungsoo was alone for the first time since the attempted robbery. His curiosity, morbid and lingering since he’d first heard about the rabbits that had gathered around him, led him back to the side of Kingston near the tall bushes.

This time, as he turned the corner, he wasn’t met with a knife to his throat, but with a man with hair that almost glowed under the new and brighter streetlights. He stepped back, heart startling with surprise. What sort of luck did he have if he ended up attacked twice?

“You survived.” The man spoke softly, taking a small step closer to him. “You did not come back through after the lights stole you away…I had feared…”

Kyungsoo took another slow step back, stomach recoiling with uneasiness. “Okay, what the actual fuck are you talking about? Campus security is crawling everywhere now. You try anything and they’ll likely shoot you or something.”

The strange, light-haired man was wearing what looked like a costume; a cream-colored, gauzy shirt like a prince or pirate would dress in before layering up with fineries and dark trousers that only fell to mid-calf. His feet were bare, and Kyungsoo underneath all the fear wondered how he wasn’t freezing.

“You don’t understand.” The man didn’t make a move closer to him now, hands raised in front of him. “I am surprised enough you can see me, but I always forget that blood is old magic.”

Kyungsoo was sure his expression was sour with frustration, as he slid his hand slowly in his pocket for his phone. “Okay, I’m calling-”

“My name is Lu Han.” The man swallowed. “I called my friends to help me warm you, because I could not do much else for your wound. You always spoke so kindly to us as you walked other nights. I didn’t want you to die alone…”

Slowly, Kyungsoo removed his hand from his pocket. “You’re trying to tell me that you’re a rabbit?”

Lu Han shook his head. “I can take many forms. Rabbits, deer, squirrels…I don’t know what title is given to my kind now, or even how many of us are left, but I am one with the land here; this little oasis of forest surrounded by city.”

A pessimist, a non-believer, and an all around skeptic, Kyungsoo couldn’t do anything more than just stare in awed silence at the man in front of him. There was clarity and honesty outside of his wild claims, and Kyungsoo knew that while this all had to be untrue, Lu Han (if that was his actual name) believed it all.

“Okay.” Kyungsoo didn’t know if the other man was a threat, but he didn’t want to risk upsetting someone who wasn’t grounded to reality. “Well a claim like that kind of needs to be proved…”

Surprisingly, the light-haired man nodded. “I must seem mad…but if you were not alone, anyone else would see you merely talking to a rabbit now. But as I cannot show you my transformations any longer…would calling my friends help?”

Hesitantly, Kyungsoo also nodded.

Lu Han sang softly, and while Kyungsoo wasn’t an expert with most languages besides his own, it didn’t resemble anything he had heard before.

The song was short and he almost wondered if it was a spell by the way the air seemed to taste like almonds. Not a moment later, Lu Han had four small rabbits around his feet, another two near Kyungsoo’s, sniffing at the laces of his shoes.

“Zitao, Yifan, don’t scare him now.” Lu Han’s smile was gentle, voice scolding like a mother reminding her children to wash their hands.

Kyungsoo’s knees felt weak, and he was afraid if he tried to step back he’d buckle to the ground. “H-How?”

Lu Han sensed his uneasiness, expression going even softer still. “You’re scared of me.”

“Normal people just-” His voice was as unsteady as the rest of him felt.

“I am not a person.” Lu Han shrugged. “So I suppose that explains why I am abnormal.”

Silence grew between them, and eventually Lu Han sat on the grass, one of the rabbits at Kyungsoo’s feet moving to lie in his lap.

Kyungsoo, unsure if he could walk home in his current state, sat as well. The other rabbit moved to sit in his lap, and his fingers trembled as he moved them into its soft fur.

“Yifan was the one that had curled by your neck." Lu Han leaned back, resting his weight on his palms outstretched onto the dewy grass behind him. “And Zitao here was by me, by the wound on your belly.”

“I.” Kyungsoo licked his lower lip before he continued. “I suppose I should say thank you. I don’t know if you saved my life but…the idea of not being alone, even if I can’t remember much…”

Lu Han seemed pleased by his words, smiling brightly now. “You are welcome. It is so nice to speak with someone…I can’t remember the last human who could see me, speak to me.”

Stroking Yifan was oddly comforting, a bit of grounding in all the madness. “Are you thousands of years old then?”

“I don’t…think of time like you likely do. I remember there was a before the city, the buildings, where I could roam for miles and now…this is all I have.” Lu Han didn’t attempt to hide his sadness as he looked up at the night sky, only the moon visible in the cloudy night.

Kyungsoo looked around the largest campus courtyard and imagined not leaving it. “You can’t…go?”

“I’m bound to it. I don’t understand it myself. If I try and cross the stone paths or roads, it is like I run into walls. I cannot pass them.” Bringing a hand into his hair, Lu Han sighed. “I used to know of men and the world, of everything…but now all I know is what little I can gather here.”

“I’m sorry.” Kyungsoo hoped Lu Han could feel his sincerity. “Is there any way I can…help?”

Lu Han perked a bit. “This alone is wonderful. An actual, civil conversation, even if it had a bit of a rough start.”

“I’m surprised campus security hasn’t done a round yet and found us.” Kyungsoo stroked one of Yifan’s ears now. “I’d promise to come see you again, but…”

“I understand.” Somehow, Kyungsoo believed he really did. “But if you ever come by again, I’ll be here. Thank you, for your time, for believing me.”

Slowly, Kyungsoo let the rabbit out of his lap and stood again, picking up his backpack and slinging it over his shoulder. The dew had seeped through his jeans, his ass and thighs uncomfortably damp. He held out a hand to help the other man (for lack of a better term for him) up. “Can I…even touch you?”

Lu Han took his hand, fingers warm despite just moments before being in the grass. “I suppose so.”

He helped the light-haired man to his feet, the rabbits around them slowly moving back away from them and into the bushes.

“Stay safe.” Lu Han paused, brows furrowing. “I never learned your name.”

“I’m Kyungsoo.” he slowly pulled his hand back, sliding it into his hoodie pocket.

Lu Han bowed. “Stay safe, Kyungsoo. Hurry back before you worry someone other than me.”

Kyungsoo exhaled slowly, hesitating only a moment before he made his way back to the dorms, even if his mind was still back in the dewy grass. He was thankful for Baekhyun and Chanyeol already being asleep by the time he slid into his own bed. His dreams were of princes and rabbits; of a man with eyes like a fawn.

\--

Finals overwhelmed campus and Kyungsoo kept the experience with Lu Han to himself. One night while walking back from the cafeteria with Baekhyun, Kyungsoo saw the light-haired man sitting on the branches of one of the trees in the courtyard. True to his claims, Baekhyun only pointed out a squirrel where Lu Han sat, and Kyungsoo could only nod in response. Lu Han understood he could not greet him, somehow, and merely waved before slipping down out of the tree and into the bushes nearby.

Between Christmas celebrations and meeting up with friends back home, Kyungsoo took to looking up different sorts of forest spirits online. Nymphs, selvans, faeries, ngen all came up in his searches and all of them were similar to what Lu Han seemed to be, but nothing seemed to answer the one question that kept haunting Kyungsoo’s thoughts when he allowed them to linger. How could he free Lu Han from the courtyard? Lu Han feared Kyungsoo dying alone, but Kyungsoo thought that an endless loneliness unbridled by time was far more terrifying.

He returned to the university a week before classes began, claiming he needed to get himself prepared for his final semester. Baekhyun and Chanyeol weren’t due back for another week and the campus itself was quieter, especially with a fresh dusting of snow, still white.

Kyungsoo bundled in his navy, wool peacoat, wrapped a black scarf around his neck and made his way into the courtyard just after the sun rose. Lu Han was in the large oak tree that shaded the front of the science building, leaping down as soon as Kyungsoo approached. In the daylight, his features were easier to make out. Along with his wide, doe eyes, he had a soft jawline; his nose in particular button-like and small.

“Kyungsoo.” His voice was bright, loud in the stillness of the morning. “It is good to see you!”

At his exuberance, Kyungsoo found himself smiling in return. “It’ll be a few more days until other students come back, so I thought I’d come visit.”

“Thank you, then, thank you.” Lu Han stopped just a few inches from him, and while his breathing was shallow from his dash across the courtyard, his breath didn’t crystallize in the air. “Did you see your family?”

“I did.” Kyungsoo rocked on his heels. “I tried to figure out what you are.”

Lu Han laughed, the gesture shifting his face from beautiful to nearly comical, jaw too slack in his amusement. “I’m a Lu Han. That’s all I know.”

“I suppose you are.” Kyungsoo exhaled slowly, his own breath white and visible in the cold. “You’re not cold?”

The other man shook his head. “Don’t worry about me. Perhaps this time you can teach me things? About cars or how a phone works or-”

“Or.” Kyungsoo smiled. “I could ask you something first.”

Lu Han tilted his head. “You may.”

“Blood is old magic, right? Do you have blood?” He kept his voice steady as he watched the light-haired man’s expression.

Still barefoot, Lu Han shifted his feet in the snow. The tracks behind him didn’t look like footprints, but pawprints instead, “I do. My kind can be killed, felled by bow or blade, but we do not age and die like men.”

“Unless the one you bond to dies.” Kyungsoo kept his voice soft, just like how he spoke to the rabbits.

Lu Han’s eyes went wide. “Bond to…”

“Blood magic.” Kyungsoo took a small pocketknife from his coat, holding it gently in his hands. “From what I have read, is the most powerful magic two souls can achieve. I gave you my blood, that night, but the ritual is only half-complete.”

The other man looked stunned, looking from Kyungsoo’s face to the blade in his hand. “And if I…”

“You’d lose your immortality, the ability to change your form. But you could still speak to the animals and trees…at least that’s what I’ve seen. But seeing as you’re not exactly like any spirit or creature I could find, this is all just conjecture.” Kyungsoo exhaled slowly. “There’s a lot to think about. I mean you have no identity, technically…or family and with my track record of getting stabbed who knows how long you’d actually live beside me-”

Lu Han took the blade in his right hand, turned his left palm up and with a wince, slid the blade along his palm.

“Lu Han!” Kyungsoo stepped forward, but Lu Han met him halfway, bleeding palm against his cheek as he leaned in and kissed him, chaste and brief. Whatever the bond was supposed to feel like was lost in the madness of the moment, in the wild rabbiting of Kyungsoo’s heart as their lips met and warm blood slid down his jaw and neck.

Stunned, Kyungsoo barely responded before the other man pulled back; grin brighter than the sunlight on the snow. “It’s freezing out here!”

“For fuck’s sake Lu Han.” Kyungsoo laughed, pulling back slightly to unwind his scarf, wrapping it around the other man’s neck. “You didn’t even think at all about this did you?”

“You’re the one that brought a knife. What was there to think about? I’m human, I’m human, I’m human.” The other man linked their hands, blood smearing between them, “take me home, Kyungsoo!”

They walked back, only pausing for a moment at the sidewalk, Lu Han taking a deep breath as he stepped onto the concrete, meeting no resistance. Kyungsoo was thankful the walk to his dorm was short now, so he could give the man something warm to drink and something to wear. His life was only going to get wilder, of that much he was certain, but somehow, instead of fear, there was anticipation building in his chest instead.

The rabbits followed them, stopping just outside the dorms. Kyungsoo may not have been The Woodland Prince, but he might have saved one instead.

**Author's Note:**

> I had a lot of fun with this one! This was loosely inspired by the campus I clean at and how many wild rabbits live on it. I do try to make friends with them, but I don't think any of them are nature spirits in disguise. I also really have a thing for writing robberies (both real and fake) at universities? Involving Lu Han? I don't even know, guys. Thank you so much for reading!
> 
> EXO and all other Kpop entertainers presented here are real people and so I remind you that this is just a fic, like a play with their stage personas as the actors. This is not intended to be a representation of who these men and women are or are not. Remember to love and respect them always. And thanks for reading! <3


End file.
